3 Steps to Keeping Your Commitments

As February comes to a close, many people across the globe have chosen to recommit to New Year’s resolutions or to give up something for the period of Lent. Regardless of the faith you follow, this time of year offers an opportunity to come back to your path, if you’ve lost your way, and recommit to being your best.

You might think of giving something up as a form of self-denial or you might believe that change requires strong discipline.

But what if you shifted your perspective and thought of it as a way of creating more? Can you see how letting go of one thing can create space and build energy for something better to take its place? Commitments offer you the opportunity to get more out of life, not less.

Step 1
The first step to ensure that you keep your commitment to your Lent or New Year’s resolution is to tie it to a larger purpose. Whether that be a spiritual purpose or a specific individual purpose, you want to see the connection between achieving your goal and the benefits that it will create beyond your own personal satisfaction.

Step 2
Second, you must identify what you believe is holding you back from achieving your goal and reset your perspective. For example, if you believe you don’t have the will power to complete your resolution you need to change the story you are continually telling yourself.

Our brains get stuck in patterns. When we clearly identify a pattern that is having a negative impact, such as believing that we don’t have will power, it is automatically diminished through our new found awareness of the pattern.

However, being aware of a negative pattern still requires you to actively shift your perspective when the pattern appears and creates resistance for you. The key is to stay receptive to witnessing your unhelpful patterns of thought and to be able to replace them with the thoughts that support your commitment. Prepare yourself with a sentence or phrase that will remind you to keep your new, more helpful, perspective at the top of your mind.

If you’re not sure what belief is actually holding you back, ask yourself: Why am I holding back? What fear is stopping me from fulfilling my commitment? How will letting go of that fear create space and energy to do what I want to do?

Step 3
Finally, the third step to keeping your commitments comes in the form of power. You need to harness your power every single day toward your commitments.

One of the most powerful ways I have found to harness my own power is to take time to meditate in silence each day.

Meditation requires you to draw yourself away from the noise and distractions of the world and connect to the peace that is within you. Connecting to this quiet center allows you to build your own power, rather than diffuse it through activity. When you learn to access and harness your power through daily meditation, you will find that you are naturally less compelled to forget about your commitments. Not to mention that the power you tap into through meditation will allow you to overcome your resistance and negative patterns. Soon you will find yourself completing the daily actions that will lead you to fulfill your resolution.

To recap here are the 3 steps to keeping your commitments:
1.) Connect your commitment to a larger purpose.
2.) Identify your negative thought patterns and change your story.
3.) Harness your power through daily silence and meditation.

Enjoy this period of reflection and rejuvenation. Let me know how these three steps help you stay on track by tweeting me @sbrookebailey.